Edward Randolph Cleaver joined the 4th Australian Light Horse Regiment in August 1914. He was the first man from Sale, Victoria to enlist. He was 29 years of age and a master butcher by trade. He had been a member of the 10th Australian Light Horse since 1910.  On the 1 November 1914, after a couple of months of training at Broadmeadows, he set sail from Albany in Western Australia on the HMAT Wiltshire arriving in Alexandria, Egypt on 11 December 1914.

HMAT Wiltshire was one of the ships of the First Contingent to carry Australian and New Zealand forces to Europe. The troops were moved as a convoy due to reports of German armed cruisers lurking along the transport routes. The troopships sailed unprotected to Albany and from there moved out in one large convoy across the Indian Ocean on 19 October 1914. The light cruisers HMAS Sydney and Melbourne formed part of the armed escort. The convoy travelled under a cloak of darkness with just a hooded stern light and no radio. The voyage of the First Contingent was not without incident.

read on

After much time and deliberation the caption competition has finally come to a close! All captions entered were put to the vote of Research Centre staff. By popular vote the winning caption was awarded to Craig Tibbitts. Craig will be recommended for a significant honour for highlighting the main problem inherent in this method of transport.

B01618 photograph by Frank Hurley 1918

Winning caption:

‘An experimental unit, the 1st Australian Light Donkey Squadron proved an abject failure at Beersheba when the animals stubbornly refused to budge.  Here, Major Cedric Bigglesworth ruefully gazes upon the gallant charge taking place in the distance.’

Recommended for other (less significant) honours and awards:

‘Fine, I’ll just get off my ass and walk!’
‘Donkey to soldier: in case you haven’t worked it out yet, it’s too late to ask the three Wise Men.’
‘Donkey:  You want me to go there and do what?!?!!’
‘Coo-ee march they said. I’ll give them coo-ee!’

Special mention goes to Bob Meade who was our most dedicated entrant. My favourite of Bob’s entries was ‘They didn’t tell me about this at the recruitment depot’. Bob was also Mentioned in Despatches for ‘Where is everybody?’ and ‘The donkey’s refusing to move Frank, so you can take as many photos as you like’. (The last was Mal’s pick of the bunch.)

Most unmentionable: ‘No smart ass comments from me I am afraid (boom boom!).’

Robyn

One of the more significant contributions to the legend of the Light Horse comes from the literature of Ion Idriess. A prolific and well loved author, whose books sold in the millions, Idriess is perhaps most famous for his stories set in the outback and Northern Australia. The Desert Column is based on the diaries that he kept throughout the war. Published in 1932, it is one of Idriess’ earliest works. Harry Chauvel noted in the foreword that it was the only book of the campaign that to his knowledge was “viewed entirely from the private soldier’s point of view”.

Idriess served as a sniper with the 5th Australian Light Horse. Enlisting in 1914, he began his diary “as we crowded the decks off Gallipoli” and he continued writing until returning to Australia unfit for further active service in March 1918. He mentions in his introduction to The Desert Column that “I would whip out the little book and note, immediately, anything exciting that was happening. As the years dragged on, my haversack became full of little note books.” The diaries cover his experience of some of the war’s major events from life in the trenches at Gallipoli to the battles at Romani and Beersheba.  read on

I’ve just put up Matthew Gibbs’ review of the film Lawrence of Arabia against our call for reviews. You can find it here and it is well worth a read. Matthew is a freelance writer from Sydney with a good knowledge of Lawrence.

While I’m here, did anyone else catch the appearance by Lawrence in the SBS TV show As It Happened about Churchill’s bodyguard on Friday night (23 February 2007)? The bodyguard, Walter H. Thompson, was amazed by Lawrence’s reputation and influence with the Arabs in Palestine in 1921.

Churchill and Lawrence enjoyed a long working relationship after Churchill persuaded Lawrence to work as an adviser in the Colonial Office when he was Colonial Secretary. For our exhibition, we will be bringing out from The (UK) National Archives, some original correspondence between Churchill and Lawrence that illustrates the bond between the two men and Churchill’s respect for Lawrence’s advice regarding Middle East matters over this period in 1921.

Mal

I am sorry that there have been few posts recently. It isn’t because we have all been on holiday. This time of year is simply a very busy period for all of us, with many planning and budget deadlines to meet. As well, we are now finalising details for the last couple of loans needed for the Lawrence exhibition and I’ve been particularly preoccupied by these negotiations. Hopefully, they will lead to an impressive range of historical weapons, art, robes, documents and other memorabilia being displayed in Australia for the first time. Once our list has been finalised and we receive permission from the lenders to use images of these objects in our blog, we will tell you all about them.

The other distraction is that we are furiously engaged in writing text and captions for the exhibition, so we can give an exhibition designer something to work with in about a month’s time. Writing material like this is a bit of a balancing act, really. You need to give background and context for any items you put on display. But you don’t want the information to be too didactic. It needs to be both engaging and enlightening.

We are also putting sponsorship proposals together. Exhibitions involving substantial overseas loans are pretty expensive to put on. So if you’re at all interested . . .

Finally, I am really excited about another new blog that has just gone live on our website. George Lambert – Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes is a travelling exhibition that will soon open in our Special Exhibition Gallery. The blog has been produced by the exhibition curator, Janda Gooding. Janda is also working with us on Lawrence of Arabia & the Light Horse as the art expert and we will feature some Lambert works in our exhibition. In fact, I was keen to feature a few works that Janda has selected for the Lambert exhibition, but unfortunately they’ll be on tour and not available for Lawrence. I’ll refer to some of those images in our blog later on. Lambert is a great blog and contains many fantastic images, so please have a look at it.

Mal

The Australian Light Horse unit war diaries from the First World War have been digitally scanned in full colour and can now be read online. This marks the start of a project to digitise all of the archival series AWM4 Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18 War. Follow the link above to read our brief description of this scanning project and then go the series note link on this page (over at the National Archives of Australia) as that will tell you even more about this archival series. More diaries will be progressively added to the website as they are completed.

We will be referring to these diaries in future blog posts as they are a fantastic primary source document.

Mal

At last! Here are the photos from our December 2006 film screening of Lawrence of Arabia. Under these nearly authentic period disguises, our exhibition team is all but revealed.

 

 

 

So, to explain this rogues’ gallery from left to right: on the far left is Brad the Light Horseman, a colleague we roped in who happens to own all of the kit he is wearing. He is dressed as a trooper of the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment, the first troops to enter Damascus when it was captured in 1918. They were recruited from Western Australia. The plumes you can see in Brad’s slouch hat are emu feathers (not kangaroo feathers).

To the right of Brad is A Nurse Called Robyn. Robyn is dressed as a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).

In the centre is Save Our Souls Susie, who is also dressed as a VAD. In the background (from left to right) you can see Nigel, Mal and Brad. We are still looking for a frontal shot of Susie and will update this when we’ve found a better image.

The fourth image from the left is Nigel of Arabia, our historian. He stole the best of the agals that we borrowed for the night, and this left me, on the far right as Mal Not Really of Arabia looking a bit tired and sad because my agal did not sit very well.

Each of the images will open up in a larger size in a new window, should you be a sucker for punishment. I’ve kept the images in the post to thumbnail size in the interests of good taste!

Mal

The political background to the entry into Damascus is complex and murky. Yet, only by identifying the underlying web of forces involved, can sense be made of what happened as control of the city passed from the Turks to the Allies.

It is clear that parts of the 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment were the first troops formally to enter Damascus when they passed through on their way to secure the Homs road and that Major Olden was handed the city by the acting governor, Emir Said, a member of the influential al-Jaza’iri or Qadir family. But within hours this unexpected turn of events was overshadowed by the political need for Damascus to be seen to be liberated by the Hashemite army led by Feisal that had fought its way north from the Hejaz.

An article published in 2005 by the British historian Dr Matthew Hughes of Brunel University reviews and updates the evidence supporting this view which was first identified more than 40 years ago by Professor Elie Kedourie of the London School of Economics. Both show that, as part of a wider Imperial policy originating in London, the British were keen to establish the Hashemites in a strong position in central Syria to destabilise French claims to this area enshrined in the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. Independently the Hashemites wanted to move their power-base from the distant and sparsely populated Hejaz to Syria and establish themselves as the legitimate and natural heirs to Turkish rule there. In this respect the British and Hashemites were equal partners of self-interest. read on

Exactly 90 years ago, with the capture of Rafa on 9 January 1917, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force arrived in Palestine. The Turkish raid on the Suez Canal in February 1915 had shown the limitations of defending both Egypt and the Canal from its western bank. Beginning with the establishment of a new defensive line 10 km east of the Canal, the British military authorities in Egypt had gradually extended this zone of protection eastwards across the Sinai Desert. After General Sir Archibald Murray assumed command in Egypt in January 1916, he moved the line of forward defence to Katia and began to build both a standard-gauge railway and a 12-inch steel water pipeline across Sinai so that he could eventually move it at least as far east as El Arish, approaching the traditional border between Egypt and Palestine at Rafa.

Following the defeat of the Turks at Romani at the beginning of August 1916, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force began a steady advance eastwards. The speed was limited to the rate at which the railway and pipeline could be built. Using the Egyptian Labour Corps this was maintained at 25km a month.

Although the bulk of the Turkish forces had been withdrawn back across the desert to El Arish, outposts were maintained at locations such as Bir el Mazar and Maghara. Murray used his most effective and desert-worthy division, the Anzac Mounted Division under Major General Harry Chauvel, to patrol aggressively across Sinai and launch heavy raids against the Turkish outposts. On 17 September Chauvel’s men, supported by horse artillery and part of the Imperial Camel Corps, attacked Bir el Mazar. After a difficult battle, Chauvel ordered the attack to be broken off and his men withdrew. Two days later the Turks gave up their strong position and fell back towards El Arish. read on

Jerusalem fell to the British and Australians just before Christmas 1917. The historic and religious significance of Jerusalem was not lost on the Australians, with many writing in letters and diaries of their excitement in glimpsing the holy city for the first time. The Official History mentions that within a matter of days of occupying the city, the bazaars, stalls and shops were open for business and Australians were seen casually spending their money in the days before Christmas. Many of the troops bivouacked outside of the city, however, had a less relaxing time, spending the Christmas season battling to save tents and supplies against severe weather conditions. read on